I'm currently working on the CEH and will be taking the exam whenever I get permission from ec-council. However, I find it a bit too general and it glosses over too many details... I want something more involved...

Enter OSCP...I hear good things and it seems to be extremely useful in helping one really learn the concepts. But how long does it take to go through the modules? The site recommends the 60 day program and it seems many people here opt for that. Can it be done in 30? How many hours a day does it take to work on it?

My situation is I just graduated with my masters in computer science and am currently unemployed looking for a job. So i have plenty of time and can spend several hours each day easily. If it can be done in 30 days, that would be nice, after all im unemployed and on a pretty tight budget!

Id like to do it now if possible while I have all this time though...idk if it will help me tremendously in my job search or not since from what i hear its not as well known or popular as others even though its every bit as difficult if not harder than most. But i do feel it would greatly help my skills overall, which is the main goal anyways. Its a tough choice...not the cheapest for someone unemployed but if im gonna do it i should do it now...

So is 30 days reasonable if I can put in several hours a day? I also have a pretty strong background i feel in security even though i just now starting to take certs for it. Ive used a lot of the tools already rather than just read about them and have good programming experience from school as well.

I think 30 days would be risking it honestly! I wasn't half way done with the course at the 30 day mark and I was devoting 3 hours minimum a day when I was enrolled in the course. Perhaps the previous version could of been done in 30 days, but I think with PWB at version 3, having tons of machines available to hack spread out across 4 subnets, an improved syllabus with new material and modules, completing the report, and doing the extra mile exercises would be rough.

Having the security background is a plus - but what the class boils down to is your ability to pen-test. I wouldn't opt for 30 days; you may think you have the time currently but unexpected things come up and sometimes you end up missing a day or two (that's what happened to me).

This may be off topic but regarding a job, have you looked into:http://rht.comShowed this link to a friend who has a few industry certs while he was looking for a job, and he hadn't heard of it before!

Thanks for the feedback and link. I hadn't checked out that site yet but it doesn't look like they have much listed in the Atlanta area right now. Ill add it to my list of sites to check though.

As for the course, I suppose i should do the 60 days as you are probably right...I just think I may need to wait until I have some income to cover the costs...while not ideal, it's a bit out of my range for now, so I'll just knock out more affordable options that I can study more on my own for and just pay for the test, like the CEH perhaps followed by ccna (already have lab equipment ). I do think the OSCP course will be really fun though so I hope to do it soon. The main thing that intrigues me is the lab machines are already set up and ready for practicing on...and I didn't set them up which makes it a bit unfair...While looking over syllabus, I feel like ive done at least 80% of the objectives already and used the tools already...however it's almost always been against my own machines except in a network security course i took where it was against two other teams (we dominated of course!). I just want more practice in an unknown environment.

Last edited by Superman859 on Sat Dec 18, 2010 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Definitely get at least 60 days for the OSCP. You'll spend a ton of time in the labs but if you're enjoying it, it will fly by. As far as the unknown lab situation, that's half the fun of it. It requires you to hone in on your information gathering skills. It also forces you to be creative because things may or may not work as you expect However, if you can nail those machines, you're going to be in good shape because you're going to end up being pretty resourceful. I highly recommend the course.